The present invention relates to an apparatus for binding with a tape a pack of paper sheets such as bank notes or securities, particularly, a three-dimentional rectangular parallelepiped article.
Various types of apparatus have been developed as a bundling unit for bank notes in a bundling system used in a main bank.
In order to generally describe the mode of operation of this apparatus, a paper currency bundling system is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. According to this system, paper currency is evaluated and sorted into fit bills which can be used again or circulated, and unfit bills which have monetary value but are removed from circulation. A plurality of apparatuses a for binding a predetermined number, for example, 100 sheets of the fit bills and the unfit bills with different colors of bands, respectively, are disposed parallel to each other. A paper bill bundle fed out from the apparatuses for binding the bundles with bands is carried on a common feeding passage b. The color of the bands of the fit and unfit bundles is detected by a color detector c which is disposed in the vicinity of the feeding passage b. A detection signal for a green band representing a fit bundle Pa and a detection signal for a yellow band representing an unfit bundle Pb are output at the color detector c. In response to these signals, a fit bundle gate d and an unfit bundle gate e selectively operate to interrupt feeding of the fit bundle Pa or the unfit bundle Pb. In synchronism with the operation of the fit bundle gate d or the unfit bundle gate e, a fit bundle pushout unit f or an unfit bundle pushout unit g starts operating to carry the fit bundle Pa or the unfit bundle Pb, which is pushed out from the feeding passage b, to a fit bundle feeding passage h or an unfit bundle feeding passage i.
The fit bundle Pa or the unfit bundle Pb is stacked on another fit bundle Pa or unfit bundle Pb which is fed out immediately before the current fit bundle Pa or the current unfit bundle Pb. Two stacked fit bundles Pa or two stacked unfit bundles Pb are fed to a fit bundle stacking unit j or an unfit bundle stacking unit k.
Before the unfit bundles Pb are burned in a furnace or dissolved in a solvent, predetermined areas of the unfit bundles, such as the currency number, the seal, and the signature must be punched out by a punching machine in order to avoid circulation of the currency.
For this purpose, an invalidating unit l is arranged in the middle of the unfit bundle feeding passage i before the unfit bundle stacking unit k.
When ten fit bundles Pa or ten unfit bundles Pb are stacked in the fit bundle stacking unit j or the unfit bundle stacking unit k, a group of fit bundles Pa or unfit bundles Pb are pushed out into a fit bundle group holding unit o or an unfit bundle group holding unit p by a pushout unit m or a pushout unit n.
When a table of a feeding mechanism of a binding unit q for binding together a group of fit bundles Pa or group of unfit bundles Pb is not occupied by a group of fit bundles Pa or a group of unfit bundles Pb, the fit bundle group holding unit o or the unfit bundle group holding unit p sends a group of fit bundles Pa or a group of unfit bundles Pb to the feeding mechanism of the binding unit q.
An article, i.e. the group of fit bundles Pa or the group of unfit bundles Pb is bound by two strips of tape in a cross shape by the binding unit q, this tape being a heat-sealable tape wider than the band previously described.
A bound article P.sub.1 of paper bill bundles is fed to a detector r through an outfeed mechanism of the binding unit q. The weight and thickness of the bound article P.sub.1 are measured to check whether or not the bound article P.sub.1 consists of 10 fit bundles Pa or 10 unfit bundles Pb. When the bound article P.sub.1 consists of 10 bundles, the bound article P.sub.1 is pushed out onto a table u by an article pushout unit s or t. A plurality of bound articles P.sub.1 are stacked on a table u. However, when the bound article P.sub.1 does not consist of 10 bundles, the bound article P.sub.1 is fed as a bound article P.sub.2 through a feeding passage v and is led to a rejected article stacking unit w.
The color detector c detects the length and width of the bundle as well as the color of the band of the bundle. Therefore, if one sheet is not aligned with other sheets, this misalignment is detected. Thus, the detected bundle is defined as a defective bundle Pc. When the defective bundle Pc is detected, the gates d and e do not operate and the detective bundle Pc is led to a rejected bundle stacking unit x which is arranged at the terminal end of the feeding passage b. The band around the bundle after the binding step in the binding unit q is omitted in the figure.
In the bank bundling system, the unit q which tightly binds the article with a tape at high speed is required.
In order to accomplish the above high performance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,731 discloses that a tape loop is formed in advance by a cylindrical tape guide before an article is fed to the binding position, the article is fed within this loop, and the article is bound with a tape.
In a system in which a tape loop is formed, while a bound article is fed out from the binding position and the next article is fed to the binding position, the next loop may be formed, preferably decreasing the overall operating time.
However, in this known binding apparatus, the leading end of the tape must be inserted into a narrow voluted tape guide passage within a guide. A flexible tape may become clogged in the middle of the guide passage. Furthermore, the guide passage must has a smooth shape, e.g., a curved shape. Therefore, if the loop to be formed is not considerably large, a rectangular parallelepiped article cannot be inserted in the loop. For this reason, the distance of the guide passage becomes long, requiring more time for the process. The length of the excess tape is quite long when the tape is tightened around the articles.